New Wissahickon School District program prepares kindergartners for upcoming school year

Teacher Mimma Pascucci works with Mayolo Contreras, 5, and Dean Martin, 5, on the sound the letter “y” makes during the Wissahickon School District’s KIDS program at Lower Gwynedd Elementary School. Photo courtesy of the Wissahickon School District.

LOWER GWYNEDD — Some incoming students in the Wissahickon School District got a sneak peek at what they can expect this fall during a newly introduced summer program.

Kindergartners Investigating and Discovering in the Summer offered a group of students the chance to practice some basic skills they will need in order to do well in school next year.

Matt Walsh, district director of elementary education, said 19 students headed to kindergarten at Lower Gwynedd Elementary and Shady Grove Elementary next year attended the monthlong KIDS program at Lower Gwynedd every day Tuesday through Thursday in July — with the exception of July 4 — from 8:30 to 11 a.m.

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A similar program was also held at Blue Bell Elementary for its incoming kindergartners and those headed to Stony Creek Elementary.

KIDS, Walsh said, was based on the results of a screening that tested the new students’ skills that they would need in order to find success in kindergarten. Social, emotional and academic skills were addressed in the exam to help teachers and staff prepare for the new class.

Parents of children who were identified as struggling in certain areas were invited to send their child to the program to help prepare them for the school year.

“We sent the invites and we got a great response,” Walsh said, adding the students had “seen tremendous growth” from the start of the program to its last day July 25.

Tara Strouse, the K-5 staff developer for the district, said she’d seen great growth in letter recognition and sounds. She said students were also beginning to associate words with letters and were starting to remember their numbers.

Social steps have also been taken, she said, noting students were lining up properly and have learned to take turns.

These are signs of “school readiness” because students are showing signs of patience, Strouse said.

Walsh said explaining rules and procedures explicitly for places like the playground is important for students.

“Some went to preschool and some didn’t,” he said, so they can’t be expected to know how to behave appropriately in every situation.

Mimma Pascucci, a Lower Gwynedd teacher, said KIDS has been “definitely beneficial.”

“We’ve got to try (the program) again,” she said. “(Students) have come a long way behaviorally, socially and academically. It’s a win-win.”

Pascucci said the ordering of numbers and the sounds of letters are two of the “trickiest” areas academically for students and they’ve “come a long way.”

She said basic skills like learning how a book works are all important steps that were addressed during KIDS.

“They’ve come so far since the first day, they’ve made a lot of progress.

“Phonemic awareness is the foundation for early literacy,” Walsh said. “The rigor is high in kindergarten (these days.)”

Denise Holland, a district reading specialist, said she’d seen an “amazing difference” in how children were behaving since they began the program.

She said things like lining up straight, sitting and listening and sharing with friends were all areas where students needed improvement.

“Now they can line up, they (understand) the classroom process and partner learning,” she said. “Children who were the most shy have blossomed. They were motioning about what they wanted, now they tell me with words. It’s just amazing.”

Holland said parents have thanked her for the program.

“They’ve said this has been well worth it,” she said.

KIDS helps prepare parents to send their kids to kindergarten as well, she said.

“Now they feel so much more relaxed about the process,” she said.

At the inception of KIDS, teachers weren’t convinced the program would run efficiently.

“When we started out, we weren’t really sure,” Holland said. “But it’s been really smooth and collaborative. We’ve adjusted as we went along.”

“Now we have a handful of students prepared for kindergarten,” Walsh added.